Climate change = 'killer cornflakes'

Rosemary Desmond

Climate change could lead to "killer cornflakes" with the cereal carrying the most potent liver toxin ever recorded, an environmental health conference has been told.

The effects of the toxins, known as mycotoxins, have been known since the Middle Ages, when rye bread contaminated with ergot fungus was a staple part of the European diet, environmental health researcher Lisa Bricknell from Central Queensland University (CQU) said.

"The rye bread, which was known as the staff of life, quickly became known as the sceptre of death."

The damage was done not from a single exposure but from many small doses of the toxins over a long period of time.

Mycotoxins can appear in the food chain as a result of the fungal infection of crops in the field or in storage, either by being eaten directly by humans, or by being used as livestock feed.

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The most important group of mycotoxins in Australian maize is aflatoxins.

They can spread when temperature and moisture conditions were right and could affect crops including maize (corn) and peanuts and in some milk, dried milk products and some spices, Ms Bricknell said.

Ms Bricknell said there had been outbreaks of high levels of aflatoxins in Australian crops in recent years and global warming was providing a new threat to food safety, with temperatures expected to rise in inland areas of the eastern states while rainfall was tipped to fall.

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"Rainfall is correlated with aflatoxin contamination, so not only do these conditions favour aflatoxin contamination but they also induce plant stress, which is going to make our plants more susceptible to contamination," Ms Bricknell said.

Grain-growing areas of Australia, such as Queensland's Burnett region, could become unviable, and Australia may have to import more maize and maize-based food products to meet demand.

"In a situation of climate change, if we are importing more products and imported products are not regulated ... we can also expect that other countries may be experiencing similar problems with increased contamination.

"While killer cornflakes may not precisely be around the corner, we do have potential for increasing aflatoxin exposure.

"We need to investigate risk management for maize production and we need to undertake careful monitoring of food products coming into our country."